1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery disposal and collection apparatus, and, more particularly, to a battery disposal and collection apparatus which can be applied to battery disposing technology for various batteries used as, for example, batteries for power supply or backup for video cameras, cameras, shavers or portable devices, and, particularly, which can make difficult risks such as fire or burns due to heat generation from the batteries to occur, and can improve safety by making difficult heat generation from short-circuiting of terminals of batteries in disposing batteries which are used up and become unavailable.
2. Description of the Related Art
Household electric appliances, office automation equipment, and portable devices have been sold and put in practical use. Many of them constitute their power supply by various batteries. However, various batteries surely have life, and when the life is reached, they must be disposed. In addition, recently, the national and local governments strongly advocate protection of global environment so that collection of various batteries becomes more and more active. In addition, every local government legislates recycle of batteries so that collection and reuse of batteries are promoted as ever.
Such various batteries certainly have remaining electric energy in themselves when they are used up and unavailable because the capacity becomes less than the rated capacity for equipment, or when they reach their life and should be disposed.
Conventionally, the method for disposing such used-up and unavailable batteries is generally to deposit in a battery collection container such as a cardboard box, metal can, or plastic container for temporary storage, and to be subject to disposal by a dedicated company after a predetermined number of days expires.
Conventional battery pack devices containing a number of batteries include those disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laying-open No. 61-127566 and Japanese Patent Application No. 4-192564. The former battery pack device has an arrangement for covering an output terminal with a cover so that there is an advantage to make difficult short-circuiting at the output terminal. The latter battery pack device has an advantage to assure the safety in disposing the pack device by discharging the life-ended batteries.